LAHORE: FG Polo Team and Diamond Paints registered thrilling victories in the Battle Axe Polo Cup 2020 matches, played here at Cavalry Polo ground.
In the first match of the day, FG Polo Team edged out AOS Polo Team by a very close margin of 7-6 in the sudden death chukker as the match ended 6-all. The fourth chukker came to an end and FG Polo managed to convert the match-winning goal to win the nail-biting encounter. From FG Polo side, Tom Brodie fired in fabulous four goals while Mian Abbas Mukhtar, Maj (R) Haseeb Minhas and Col Omer Minhas converted one goal apiece. From AOS Polo, Raja Samiullah hammered a hat-trick while Edward Banner Eve contributed with a brace and Kian Hall one.
FG Polo Team started the match with two back-to-back field goals to gain 2-0 lead. AOS Polo then fought back well and converted one goal to reduce the margin to 2-1. AOS continued their good show in the second chukker as well and banged in a brace to gain 3-2 lead. FG Polo then made a good comeback by thrashing two back-to-back goals to get back 4-3 lead.
The only goal of the third chukker was converted by AOS Polo by converting a 30-yard penalty to square the things at 4-all. In the fourth chukker, both the teams played superb polo and matched fire-with-fire as both the sides slammed in two goals each to make it 6-all. After that, both the sides tried their best to convert more goals but they failed to score more and the match then decided in the sudden death chukker, where FG Polo played better polo and succeeded in converting the match-winning goal to win the encounter 7-6.
The second match of the day also proved to be a thriller, where Diamond Paints overcame spirited Master Paints by a narrow margin of the 7-6. From Diamond Paints, Hissam Ali Hyder emerged as hero of the day as he hammered superb six goals while Mir Huzaifa Ahmed contributed with one goal. From Master Paints, Mariano Regal and Bilal Haye contributed with a brace each while Farooq Amin Sufi and Mumtaz Abbas Niazi hit one goal each.
Diamond Paints were off to flying start as they converted two 40-yard penalties successfully to gain 2-0 edge. But Master Paints played equally well and thrashed two tremendous goals to draw the score at 2-all. The second chukker saw Master Paints scoring the only goal of the chukker to have a slight 3-2 lead.
The hard-fought third chukker was slightly dominated by Master Paints as they converted three goals as against two goals by Diamond Paints to maintain their 6-4 lead. Diamond Paints changed their game plan and strategy in the fourth and last chukker, which paid off well as they fully dominated the last chukker by hammering a hat-trick, thus won the crucial encounter by 7-6.
